It's Friday, Love

{ A new necklace }

This week. If I don't do what I need to do by Sunday to make sure the week goes off without a hitch,  it doesn't. Nothing bad, just hitchy we'll call it. Maybe one day I'll learn. Or maybe life would be boring without these hitches we so desperately try to avoid. Maybe we'd only have the weather and the state of the roads to talk about if everything went according to plan. I used to say I hated surprises, hated unexpected things, but maybe I secretly love them. Maybe I have a secret crush on hitches and I've never realized it. Maybe. I still have my to-do list(s) just in case.

{ We tore its heart out and ate it with gusto }

{ Rearranging ]

{ A glass top wine bottle }

{ Some days I think I would be content to live in this little house }

Tomato and Peach Salad

The last few years I've felt like I couldn't find a decent peach to save my life. My sister used to live in Atlanta and you can literally smell the peaches 2 aisles away. So good. But up here? Not so much. You can understand then that I was thrilled to find some decent ones recently and of course I bought like 9. In order to use them before they went bad, I had to resort to some creative recipes. As long as I can find good peaches again next year, this dish will be on regular rotation. It doesn't get much simpler than tossing peaches and tomatoes in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and then sprinkling them with a generous amount of basil. So good, really, so good. Basil and peach together is like heaven. Next time I might reduce the balsamic to make it a bit sweeter and then add some buratta cheese as well. I'll let you know when I make it again so you can come over. See ya soon!

It's Friday, Love

{ Soaking up the last few days of summer colors }

Facebook notified me upon waking this morning that today is World Photo Day. If you read this blog regularly, you know how much photography has changed my life so I won't digress, but sufficed to say, today is a day I wholeheartedly celebrate. In other news, Miss A has to have a little thingymajigy on her stomach removed and I cried when they told me they would have to put her under to do it even though I already knew they'd have to. Not for a couple weeks, so I will try and steel myself in the hopes of not sitting in a pathetic puddle the day they actually do it. Will probably happen anyway so I'm sure you're excited to hear about that. The house needs so much TLC so I'm planning on a cleaning/home improvement weekend, or at least as much as my bum leg/knee will allow. See ya Monday!

{ Late day laziness }

{ Great show last Friday night at James River Cellars Winery }

{ Buy this now I saw results immediately }

{ What did we do before favorite coffee shops }

Red Wine Granita

I feel like all I've been saying lately is.....IT'S HOT! What to do, what to do? Have a drink, duh, but too hot for a glass of red. Well, maybe not. I came across a recipe for something called a Red Wine Granita and I thought I would give it a shot. I'll admit the final product was not as pretty as I'd hoped, but that's my fault. Once you place the wine mixture in the freezer you're supposed to flake the ice crystals to the middle of the dish every half hour or so. This ensures too many ice crystals don't form and you get rich sweet wine flavored goodness. I of course promptly forgot to do this once I placed the dish in the freezer and alas was left with a somewhat less rich, but none the less tasty, granita. I served it in wine glasses over a scoop of Vanilla Bean Halo Top ice cream....OMG so delicious! I'm slowly working my way through all of their flavors. How they make an ice cream this delicious with this little calories and no yucky chemicals, I'll never know, but I'm eternally grateful they did. Fun little summer treat that feels like an adult slushy. Enjoy!

Red Wine Granita

Heat a cup of water and a half cup of coconut sugar over medium heat till the sugar dissolves. Then combine with 1/2 bottle of red wine in a baking dish. Place baking dish in the freezer for about four hours. Every half hour flake the ice crystals to the center of the dish with a fork. Serve granita over vanilla ice cream.

The Late Day Sun

I woke up the other morning to see shadows in the backyard. The sun was just a little bit lower at that time of day than it had been the day before. A harbinger of things to come. When you're doing more glossy type photos, head shots and the like, shadows are things you stay away from. But sometimes....they're perfect. They help capture how you feel. They make the shot a bit more interesting. They're perfect because they make everything look a little less so. More real. More moody. More like life. Mistakes, wrong turns, yet still the light that you can see. The light that still fights to be seen. 

It's Friday, Love

{ It's hot we want ice cream }

Every time I see a runner or a biker fly past me my heart fills with an envy so great I feel like - almost - crying. My leg still hurts. Well, it hurts less, but that's because I haven't been doing the repetitive motion that originally caused the injury. I guess that's progress. But I'm nowhere near being able to exercise normally and I miss it so. I miss my heart beating fast. I miss my lungs opening. I miss feeling that feeling. I'm stretching and using my roller religiously. I think that has helped loosen everything up and reduced the inflammation. I've been doing my exercises and have swum a few times, but the leg didn't feel great the day after swimming so I think I have to hold off on that for another week at least. I hate this. That is all. Sorry to be Debbie Downer. Band has a show tonight and I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully it will turn my frown upside down. See ya Monday.

{ I won a silver medal in the Office Olympics Potluck }

{ Rehab Gear }

{ Rockin the cold brew this warm week }

{ Shot with my iphone and edited in Instagram }

Easy Turkey Meatballs

I see a lot of bloggers on Instagram posting their weekly meal prep on Sundays. Basically, they make a week's worth of food in one day so it's done and they don't have to worry about it for the rest of the week. In theory, that sounds fabulous and I'm sure its a huge time-saver. But I really like to eat depending on how I'm feeling and what my body needs that day, so I find I waste a lot of food when I do something similar. That being said, I do try and make a couple things on Sunday that will make eating healthy during the week easier. I found this recipe for Turkey Meatballs and they turned out delicious! They can be used as a meal or snack and I even crumbled up one with some egg whites and veggies for a breakfast omelette. Yum. And they didn't take more than an hour start to finish to make. If you follow the recipe exactly, it's also Whole 30 and Paleo approved. Enjoy!

Overgrown

Miss Austen and I have our regular routes for walking. The specific route and length of a walk is generally impacted by how late I’m running. One of Miss A’s favorites, due to the high concentration of squirrels, takes us past Chimborazo Elementary School.  A few years ago, landscaping was put in that transformed the grounds into an extremely pretty and inviting space. In fact, I was quite envious. Oh, to have a green thumb. Mine is currently chartreuse. I loved walking by. Lately, though, it looks a little, well, overgrown.

I have no idea who did the initial planting or who kept it up. I’ve never seen any type of professional landscaping service either, so my best guess is that it was done on a volunteer basis. I am in NO WAY writing this to call anyone out. The grounds are still really lovely, but…. I can see a difference. The plants need a little love.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, I was walking by the other day and noticed it, the difference, and I thought to myself that was how I’d been feeling lately, a little overgrown. When big changes happen in your life your brain shifts energy and space where it needs it the most. You go into sort of a survival mode and the places that are integral to survival come first. 

The weeds, that’s when they see an opening. You’re supposed to do something on a Monday and you just don’t get to it. I’ll do it tomorrow, you think. I can carve out time. It’s important; it needs to get done too. But then tomorrow comes and you still don’t get to it. Then you make a new to-do list and it’s even longer than the one you made Monday. The weeds start popping up. Friday comes and there are still those three things staring at you “un-crossed off” on your list. I’ll get them done over the weekend.

By Monday, the weeds have become intertwined with the real plants and you’re so mad at yourself you could spit. Then you just sit and watch the weeds overtake the garden. They spread like a disease. Then, the time and effort it will take to clean them up feels like climbing Everest. What would have taken an hour will now take a day. That overwhelming feeling begins to break over you like a wave. I’ll never get it all done now. Why can’t I juggle all this?!

Because, Kelly, sometimes, you just have to go to sleep. Sometimes, you need to put yourself first. Sometimes, you need to ask why someone else isn’t pulling their weight, and frankly, why can’t they do it? Sometimes, you need to worry less about disappointing someone else and more about how much better you’ll feel if you just clean up the backyard.  This is obviously about more than the backyard, but you already knew that.

Vacation for me came at the perfect time; at least it seemed like the perfect time. A break helps you step away from the everyday just long enough to see what’s staring you right in the face. I have a bad habit of thinking that even though everything is completely changing, somehow everything will stay exactly the same. It doesn’t. 

When I came back from vacation it seemed like a bit of a fresh start. Things in a lot of areas felt better than they had in weeks. I let go of the last eleven years I think. Life won’t be the same, hopefully it will be better. Better in the sense that you grow and you change. You accept your new surroundings and your role in them.  Your brain calms down just long enough for you to look around and finally notice the weeds that have so ruthlessly taken up residence around you. Yuck! Luckily, I look adorable in a pair of Wellies and shears in my hand.

Homeostasis is close, but not completely here yet.…..

Either way, I feel a lot better……

I can’t wait for how I’ll feel in another two months. 

It's Friday, Love

{ Wine is always better with a friend }

Every time I hear a certain song it means there's a shift, that something is different. It's also a very specific version of this certain song. Time has shown me the radio version doesn't count. It's a live version that was recorded during an intimate concert many decades ago. The piano is more prominent, more haunting. It has more soul. Sometimes it's been a good shift and and sometimes its been a bad one, but it's always the one that I hear. It was playing about two weeks ago. I would like to be running towards something rather than away. Either way I'm running, searching, calling. I hope I find what I'm looking for eventually.

{ Mirror, Mirror }

{ The pic was blurry because I think I was hungry }

{ I love that Dover Hall will never break up with me }

{ Editing pics from a photoshoot I did for Childsavers }